Growing demand for set-top boxes

Mar 2, 2017

The demand for government-subsidised set-top-boxes is up, with a total of 36 042 households registered for these decoders in February, compared to 11 709 registrations captured for January.
“It is encouraging to see the growth in demand. The increase in registrations is a strong indication of the success of the migration project,” says Communications Minister Faith Muthambi. “Awareness is growing day by day and people appreciate the tangible benefits that come with this process.”
Officials from the Department of Communications and the South African Post Office have been instrumental in raising awareness and increasing registrations.
The Northern Cape and Free State provinces have already gone through a set-top-box installation phase and, this month, the installation of set-top-boxes will resume in other borderline provinces such as Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
So far, a total of 18 analogue transmitters have been switched off since October last year in the area surrounding the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in the Northern Cape.
“Digital terrestrial television services provide us with a rich opportunity to realise the vision of building a people-centred and inclusive information society,” Muthambi says.